Yourself and Yours (seen on the K Blu-Ray) is almost surely Hong's most charming and sweet-natured film to date. Lots of the reviews talk about the heroine having possible doppelgangers -- which didn't seem to be the case to me. Others mention the film's link to Bunuel's Obscure Object of Desire -- which I do see, albeit only at a very abstract level (albeit handle in an utterly different manner). No one seems to drink soju in this (even though the heroine's alleged over-drinking is an important plot point) -- and no one throws up (possibly a first for a Hong film). No extras other than a trailer (and a booklet), the feature is subbed (accurately enough, so far as I can tell). While unmistakably a Hong film, this really did not _feel_ like any previous film by him. So much for the claim that he just makes the same film over and over.

zedz wrote:The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!

The YesAsia listing for Hill of Freedom states: “Note: This film is shot mostly in English with some Korean. The Korean dialogue is not English subtitled.”

Can anyone who has seen the film confirm how much Korean dialogue there is? Would I be able to follow the film without understanding Korean?

It's mostly English (maybe 3/4?), but the film doesn't work if you don't understand the Korean dialogue because of its unique structure:

SpoilerShow

A woman returns home from an overseas trip to find a bunch of letters left for her by an English-speaking acquaintance who just dropped into her hometown to hook up with her and hung around for a while forlornly leaving letters for her in her absence. On her way home, she drops the bundle of undated letters and has to gather them up in random order (and we're aware, but she is not, that at least one letter in overlooked).

The rest of the film is her reading the letters, and the events in them playing out for us. But the order of events is scrambled, and the audience has to attempt to reconstruct the correct order (and speculate about whatever might have happened in the missing letter, and where that lacuna falls in the reconstructed narrative).

It's a tremendously enjoyable, and typically wry, puzzle film, to which there may be multiple solutions, but all that reconstructive work on our part relies heavily on parsing subtle clues in the fragmented epistolary narratives (e.g. how well does the writer know a certain dog at a certain cafe at different times), and a lot of those clues, along with most of the framing story, come from the Korean dialogue. The visitor's letters and dialogue are all in English, and because he doesn't understand Korean the people he encounters try to speak English to him, but part of the point of the film is how much he misses because of the language barrier.

On the Beach at Night Alone (2017) - Coming after the mostly unusually gentle (and positive) Yourself and Yours, Hong's next film is atypically subdued -- and female-centric. There is no real male lead, and the two main supporting characters (in terms of screen time) are female. It is also one of Hong's saddest films overall (though sadness is not infrequent in his mostly comedic output). As in Tale of Cinema, we have a rather abrupt transition from a part one to a part two -- in this case a move from a trip to wintry Germany to a heroine returned to an almost as wintry Korea. KIM Min-hee is at the center of this film for almost every minute -- as a love-damaged and rather distraught actress who has been involved with a (married) director (reflecting aspects of her actual relationship with Hong). Another impressive (and distinctive) offering by Hong. The Korean Blu-Ray is subbed and has no extras other than a trailer.

Michael Kerpan wrote:On the Beach at Night Alone (2017) - Coming after the mostly unusually gentle (and positive) Yourself and Yours, Hong's next film is atypically subdued -- and female-centric. There is no real male lead, and the two main supporting characters (in terms of screen time) are female. It is also one of Hong's saddest films overall (though sadness is not infrequent in his mostly comedic output). As in Tale of Cinema, we have a rather abrupt transition from a part one to a part two -- in this case a move from a trip to wintry Germany to a heroine returned to an almost as wintry Korea. KIM Min-hee is at the center of this film for almost every minute -- as a love-damaged and rather distraught actress who has been involved with a (married) director (reflecting aspects of her actual relationship with Hong). Another impressive (and distinctive) offering by Hong. The Korean Blu-Ray is subbed and has no extras other than a trailer.

SpoilerShow

how do you interpret the very last frame of part 1 (the scene at the beach at night). It looks like "the cineast" kidnap her (she fainted?) and carries her on his shoulder...
I was not sure...
There's a symetry : photography/frames/places (beach of course) with parts 1 - 2 : all dialogues from part 1 are about denying love which can't be "appropriate" in the real life; and renouncing to love and preferring to die to go away with it so that it can be here forever. All the dialogue in part 1 are about diseases, and she explains her desire to die and "freeze" this love story. The second part is more explicit : at the table "the man" explain clearly that he is deeply marked forever with this love and he almost says during the conversation at the table that he wants to die to keep this love forever.
If this fugitive plan on at the end of the beach on part 1 is what I think I saw, then this could be an happy end...
He often used like in part 2 when she sleeps near the beach the "fainted"/dreaming sequence like with Isabelle Huppert "In Another Country"...

Apparently she is "carried off" by the weird guy who keeps reappearing throughout part 1,
asking for time, cleaning window frantically, etc. Not sure, what the significance of this, but personally would vote for it as a surrealist touch -- not anything "real". I tend to think the dramatic scene between the actress and the director in part 2 is all just a dream -- which links this film a bit to the preceding one -- where "wish dreams" also were featured.

Claire's Camera finally made it to Cambridge for 3 days (thanks, Brattle Theatre). It really was delightful. Huppert and KIM Minhee were both excellent (as was everyone else in the cast). Huppert's character was loopy and funny. Lots of local color in the Cannes setting. The film also featured a rather lacerating (albeit fictionalized) portrayal of Hong himself (possibly his harshest ever). Looking forward to a BluRay release ASAP...